Pilot Study with a Sample from VV.FF

The preliminary study was conducted on a group of 30 full-time firefighters, of which, 11 were pilots, and a group of 60 students from the University of Milan. The data have shown very promising results and demonstrated how the instrument is both reliable and sensitive, which is actually able to highlight different levels of skill in participants.

During the Antisaccade test, the group of firefighters showed an average response slightly higher than the control group, most likely due to the increased variability in terms of age. The education and the gender, variables taken into consideration, had no effect on the pattern of eye movements recorded, as is required by the design of the experiment.
The comparison between the performance of firefighter pilots and “generic” firefighters showed better performance in the former, most likely due to the type of professional distracters and the specifics of flight.
Regarding the performance test in Visual Research, the firefighters group showed a slightly lower benefit than the control group, while the average of the two groups rather close and comparable. Also in this case, the comparison between the performance of pilots and generic “firefighters” highlights a much better performance in the former, probably due to the type of professional distracters and the specifics of flight.
Analyzing the performance of the ten best subjects in the two groups considered, the group of firefighters showed an absolute comparable performance, with a tendency to get consistently higher scores. In general, the PVA test has proven effective and suitable for discriminating normal performance from below-average or markedly deficient, both in the firefighters and in the control group.
The fact that the performance of the two groups was found to be, notwithstanding the difference in age, gender and education of the subjects, more or less near and comparable, at about the same level of psychophysical staff of firefighters and the capacity of the instruments used to separate components linked solely to performance and psychomotor effective for the candidate regardless of prejudice, based on models which are often insufficient.
The study has also shown that the planning and execution of objective tests in the area of selection and evaluation of personnel is not only possible, but desirable, considering the high sensitivity of the instruments used in relation to classical techniques and the extremely “protective” characteristics of the test towards the subjects.

The process of selection and evaluation presented here, chosen and recommended by the Legal Medical Service of the Ministry of the Interior - Fire Brigade, puts our country at the top, in terms of methodology and instrumentation, clearly demonstrating capabilities in terms of innovation and attention to operations personnel, so as to arouse the interest of other European countries, such as Germany and Finland.